Captain Judy Helmey
Miss Judy Charters
"Kicking Fish Tail Since 1956!"
124 Palmetto Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31410
912 897 4921 or 912 897 3460 fax
www.missjudycharters.com
November 24, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving To All!
Saltwater inshore, offshore, blue water fishing report, Freshies Suggestions, and "Little Miss Judy's story! Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Big Offshore Tackle Sale at
Tybee Bait and Tackle Lazaretto Creek
912 786 7472 Call Capt Ray Golden
raygolden1@comcast.net
Please find at the very end of fishing report two Thanksgiving stories in "Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not!"
"Little Miss Judy's Believe It or Not!"
There are two Thanksgiving stories in this report! I didn't know which one to publish. So therefore I used both of them! Hope you enjoy!
A Thanksgiving Story!
Number One!
Brought to you by my life with my father!
I guess most everyone has one of these holiday types of stories to share. So therefore I would assume I am no different than anyone else. My father always invited lots of family and friends to our Pre-Thanksgiving feast and drinking fest. It normally started around noon and most of the time lasted way until the early hours of the morning. I might as well get to the truth of it all. There was lots of eats and as I mentioned earlier also a lot of drinking! Due to the fact that there were so many different types of people attending I have to admit sometimes that things really got interesting, meaning there was a good time had by all!
Our dinner wasn't like most others where your family comes to visit, sits at the table, converses, and then eats. It was more like a large picnic where you sat where you could and drank either what you brought or what was available. My father always had some sort of spirits around. According to my father the best of all liquor's was called "O P!" This simply stood for "other people's liquor."
We spent our actual Thanksgiving Day with Aunt Hattie and Uncle Foster, but that's an entirely different story. Our pre-Thanksgiving party was always a hit with those that attended and also it meant a great deal for those that didn't. The reason for this is a simple one, "those others had plenty to talk about!" Our parties did get out of hand in most cases, which only added fuel to the conversations of the "busybody brigade!" My father use to always say, "Women in hats always have something to hide!" According to daddy it was their big mouths! As a child, I wasn't sure about the mouth thing. So therefore I stared at all those that were wearing hats, because I was always trying to get a glimpse of what they were supposedly trying to hide. I am sure glad I grew out of that one!
We made this hors d'oeuvre, although Daddy never called them that. I can guarantee they were eaten by the handfuls. Daddy would take a tube of saltines crackers and deal them out on a big tray. After that achievement he would open a few cans of whole sardines and put a large piece on each cracker. As well as I can remember ½ sardine on each cracker worked out well. On top of the sardines daddy put a thinly cut ring of raw Vidalia onion.
Here's comes the last part and the best for me. While he was building his hors d' oeuvre I was "rolling the lemons!" I was allowed to roll them on any hard surface that I could find. So therefore some were rolled on the counter top while others were rolled on the concrete floor, because that's where most of them ended up. My job was to soften the tough meat of the old lemons. I would then hand them over and daddy would cut them in half. He then would squeeze the juice over the top of the crackers-sardines-onion rings. According to my father this was a dish that had to be eaten right a way. If not the crackers would become to soft to even pick up. My job was to carry the tray and offer them up. As I can remember since it was long ago I think I only dropped a few trays.
Our guests showed up in cars, trucks, and boats. We never knew exactly how many guests would attend, but knowing my father as I did I always expected a lot. In the cooking department, I would have some help from daddy in my younger years, but as I got older I grabbed whom ever I could. We cooked the normal Thanksgiving stuff, which consisted of baked turkey, dressing, and lima beans. When I was young, eight years or less, neither Daddy nor I could figure out how to make Giblet gravy or rice. Back in the old days you couldn't just purchase gravy in a jar or rice in a bag. So therefore we stayed away from those two items. We had our turkey recipe down. We just oiled the bird up, put some choice seasonings on it, dumped it in the oven, and put it on 350 degrees for many hours. However, there was this time where the turkey slipped out of our hands and on to the floor it went. A greased headless 22-pound turkey when free dropped from 3 feet especially at the right angle can do some traveling on the old kitchen floor. I should have measured the distance, but didn't think about it at the time.
The stuffing/dressing was another thing that I didn't understand the whole just of. My first dressings didn't have much taste. I don't know why I just didn't ask someone, but I really never thought about it. The biggest problem was the fact that I didn't know that it had to be cooked in the oven. So therefore most of the time it was made from the turkey's juice and cracked up toast. It never looked or tasted like Aunt Hattie's dressing whether I cooked it or not. I guess you really could say especially in this case "secret's definitely not in the sauce!"